Ex-priest in Australia faces child sex charges: Sex crimes

Sex crimesEx-priest in Australia faces child sex charges

Veröffentlicht am 03.09.2008 | Lesedauer: 4 Minuten

A former Roman Catholic priest already facing dozens of charges related to allegations of sexual abuse at an exclusive Australian boarding school has been charged with an additional 60 child sex offenses, police said Wednesday.

Police also arrested two other men Wednesday in connection with the investigation into alleged abuse in the 1980s at two religious schools.

The new charges and arrests come after Pope Benedict XVI visited Australia in July and publicly condemned sexual predators in the church, apologizing to their victims.

The 65-year-old ex-priest, identified by his attorney as Brian Spillane of Sydney, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with 60 counts relating to alleged sexual assaults against eight people, New South Wales state police said.

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He was released on bail and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15, a police spokeswoman said on customary condition of anonymity. The spokeswoman declined to provide any additional information, including details of the allegations or the specific charges.

Spillane was originally charged in May with 33 child sex offenses against five people as a result of a police investigation into allegations of abuse in the 1980s at St. Stanislaus in the city of Bathurst, 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Sydney. Spillane worked at the school on and off between the 1970s and early 1990s.

Police on Wednesday also arrested a 66-year-old Catholic brother in connection with their probe into St. Stanislaus and a 63-year-old former teacher of another religious school in Bathurst that is also under investigation.

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The Catholic brother was arrested in Sydney and charged with 28 sexual offenses dating back to the 1970s and '80s. He was released on bail and ordered to appear in court Sept. 15. Police did not name the man or say whether he taught at St. Stanislaus. Many members of Catholic orders teach in religious schools.

The other suspect arrested Wednesday, a former teacher who lives on Russell Island in Queensland state, was charged with three counts of indecent assault relating to alleged offenses at the Anglican All Saints College in Bathurst in 1973. He was released on bail and ordered to appear in court Nov. 17.

Police did not release either man's name or details about the allegations against them.

Police Superintendent Michael Goodwin said that since the original allegations became public, additional people have come forward claiming to have been abused at the schools.

„Police are currently working through a significant amount of information in relation to these sexual assault matters most of which date back to the 1970s and 80s,“ Goodwin said in a statement.

„As a result of information from the public, (the police probe) has been expanded to investigate any instances of sexual abuse relating to any former student of any school in the Bathurst area,“ he said. „Inquiries are continuing, and I cannot rule out further arrests at this stage.“

Spillane's lawyer, Greg Walsh, said Wednesday that his client maintained his innocence and said the case had been „highly contaminated,“ in part because the accusers' complaints were based on repressed memories.

Walsh declined to elaborate or say whether police or psychologists worked with the accusers to draw out the memories of alleged abuse.

„I can't go into details,“ he said, adding only that there were „a number of bizarre aspects“ to the case.

John Edwards, principal of St. Stanislaus, said the school first learned of the allegations against the former priest five or six years ago, after a link to a Web site containing graphic descriptions of sex acts that had allegedly taken place at the school was sent to several staff members. Officials at the school forwarded the information to police, Edwards said.

„We never heard anything further of it,“ Edwards said.

On July 3, the school was served with a search warrant listing the names of three former staff members, including Spillane, Edwards said. But police would not tell Edwards whether the other two former staff members were also accused of molesting students, or whether they were simply potential witnesses.

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